We show that the response of banks’ net interest margin (NIM) to monetary policy shocks is state dependent. Following a period of low (high) Federal Funds rates, a contractionary monetary policy shock leads to an increase (decrease) in NIM. Aggregate economic activity exhibits a similar state-dependent pattern. To explain these dynamics, we develop a banking model in which social interactions influence households’ attentiveness to deposit interest rates. We embed that framework within a nonlinear heterogeneous-agent NK model. The estimated model accounts well quantitatively for our key empirical findings.

Our results reveal that higher lending spreads between foreign and home markets redirect real estate backed lending towards foreign markets offering a higher interest rate, which provides evidence for "search for yield" behavior. This re-allocation is found especially for banks with more expertise on the foreign market due to a higher local activity and holds for commercial and residential real estate backed loans. Furthermore, "search for yield" behavior and a resulting increase in foreign real estate backed lending is found when macroprudential regulation is missing or misaligned between a bank’s country of residence and the destination country. When turning to the question of whether the detected search for yield behavior results in more risk, we find that especially better capitalized banks report higher forbearance ratios as they might face less stigma effects compared to low capitalized banks.

This paper investigates the critical role of church membership in the process of economic recovery after high-impact natural disasters. We document a significant adverse treatment effect of the 2005 hurricane season in the Southeastern United States on establishment-level productivity. However, we find that establishments in counties with higher rates of church membership saw a significantly stronger recovery in terms of productivity for 2005–10. We also show that church membership is correlated with post-disaster entrepreneurship activities and population growth.

We estimate potential regional industrial effects in case of a threatening gas deficit. For Germany, the reduction leads to a potential decrease in industrial value added by 1.6 %. The heterogeneity across German states is remarkable, ranging from 2.2 % for Rhineland-Palatinate to 0.7 % for Hamburg. We emphasize the need for regional input-output tables to conduct economic analysis on a sub-national level, particularly when regional industrial structures are heterogeneous. The approximation with national figures can lead to results that differ both in magnitude and relative regional exposure. Our findings highlight that more accurate policy guidance can be achieved by improving the regional database.

Gegenstand dieses Evaluationsberichts ist die Replikation und Erweiterung der Ergebnisse des vorhergehenden Gutachtens zur Evaluation der Gemeinschaftsaufgabe ‚Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur‘ (GRW) 

Der vorliegende Evaluationsbericht verfolgt zwei Ziele. Erstens aktualisiert er die Ergebnisse aus dem vorherigen Gutachten. Zweitens betrachtet er einige Aspekte zu den Wirkungen der GRW-Förderung vertiefend. Dazu gehört insbesondere die Frage, ob die GRW für die geförderten Betriebe tatsächlich einen Anreizeffekt im Sinne einer Ausweitung der Investitionstätigkeit hatte und wie sich die Effekte der Förderung unter Verwendung fortgeschrittener Produktivitätsmaße darstellt. Des Weiteren widmet sich der Evaluationsbericht einer vertiefenden Untersuchung heterogener Effekte auf sektoral disaggregierter Ebene sowie nach Betriebsgrößenklassen. Wo es möglich ist, analysiert der Bericht zudem längere Zeiträume nach dem Beginn des Förderprojekts. Schließlich widmet sich der Evaluationsbericht Fragen zur Wirtschaftlichkeit des GRW-Programms auf einzelbetrieblicher Ebene, indem er die Effekte in Beziehung setzt zur Höhe der aufgewendeten Fördermittel.